I need a coffee for this.
Of course there are other fragments that would come in the future of the game out there but the point with Nashandra is she is still the first fragment to set in motion the harvesting plot of the king souls and "break the circle" in game but by the adition of the DLC she is falling apart to be first one and the whole point of the vanilla game falls apart in terms of lore
Indeed, we need some coffee, I read your reply yesterday but it was a little too late to reply to you. I must say that one of the things I love about these games is how everyone has different interpretations of the story, that being said whatever I write here is just my interpretation of the lore.
I agree that Nashandra is the first fragment of Manus that took form (it's stated in the game) but I'm not sure she's the first one to set in motion the events that led to Drangleic's demise before her "sisters" would do something similar to other kingdoms, in fact, the DLC shows that that was not the case.
Also, I think the whole "breaking the cycle" thing was not planned by Nashandra, but Vendrick. Vendrick did everything he could to avoid to light the first flame. We know that he harvested the power of the souls of the old ones (Shalquoir and Chancellor Wellager say so) but at some point he abandoned that path and the souls of Nito, Gwyn, etc. merged with other beings after that. I believe that at some point Vendrick realized lighting the first flame would just strengthen the curse ( item descriptions say that
when the flames grow stronger, so does the curse). Making the curse stronger would just benefit Nashandra in my opinion, so breaking the cycle wasn't in her interest, in fact, she wants the player to take the throne (and light the first flame, which is located in the kiln of the first flame).
In Sunken King, Drangelic was the culprit in decimating Shulva habitant, In Iron King they tried to scavenge the black Iron but failed to only damage one efigy of the ashe lady yet she didnt know her "sisters" were already setting in motion their planes or aware the player encounter dark being out there, not even the abyss covenant leader is aware of the abyss chasms in the DLC.
It looks like by ending the game and looking at nashandra's items the new devs in charge of DS is trying to use manus fragments as a plot device to keep the game alive which is a lazy tactic to keep the plot running while you are looking for a sustancial plot to keep the series going but for what purpose?
Ending the game is pointless since you are stuck in the cicles the devs created to make more games so there is no significative consecuences in this game.
I know we have to be very careful with some of the translations since it's been shown by Vaatividya that there were several errors during the translation of the game. In fact, in the description of the Dragonrider Greatshield it says that Vendrick destroyed inhabitants of the previous land erecting a magnificent kingdom (Drangleic) upon their graves, and I thought that the game made reference to the 3 kingdoms we saw in the DLC, we now know that he actually failed to conquered those 3 kingdoms, and that he attempted to conquer one of them by sending golems, and since the golems were created after he attacked the giants, that lead me to believe that the kingdom Vendrick conquered (the one that was in Drangleic's place) is not the one of the Sunken king, nor the one of the Ivory King or the one of the Old Iron King, or perhaps his forces just couldn't take down the castles/capitals of those kingdoms.
What I do think is lazy is relying on the cycle to keep the story going over and over again, but while I could be totally wrong here, I don't think FromSoft will do that. I believe in the first game we saw the beginning of the very first cycle (alternatively, Gwyn hurling himself into the flames could be the end of the first cycle and what happens in DS one is actually the second cycle), and in DS II we were shown how Vendrick is trying to stop the cycle, but ultimately failing; he needs the power of the other kings and perhaps that is his last resource to get rid of the curse; his forces failed to retrieve the souls/crowns of the previous kings, but you the player succeeded and with the power of 4 kings and his crowns you cannot be taken by the curse at the end; it's totally plausible that Vendrick himself was the closest to achieve that since he actually kept the curse at bay using a powerful soul (according to the game), but in the end, tired and desperate, he just locked himself in the Undead Crypt and sent the Emerald Herald to search for the next monarch, something she couldn't achieve while the king was still sane (and that would explain why she says she failed to break the curse).
Unlike Humans they born with their own flames part of the original flame but Pygmy knew the humans would not survive alone or being hunted/slaved by the other lords so he gave them his Dark Soul but humans were unaware of their potential so Gwyn used them as a fuel for the bonfires but later own humans developed their own potencial of manipulating the souls (Int) and use their devotion of the gods as a source of power (faith).
Pygmy knew the era of the flame will end and the humans were the one of the few creatures that could survive the dark without being heavily corrupted like the other lords of the souls, maybe pygmy was a human too.
I think I agree with you here.
The problem is the game script tied the child of the dark as fragments of manus while Darklurker could be a human with the same fate as the four kings and Elana being a Hollowed human using her dark soul for her own prupose to begin the era of dark.
The game says that Elana is a fragment of the abyss, in fact it says that
"
When the Abyss dissipated, the things that called it home were fragmented and scattered across the realm. Eventually, these pieces regained form, in ways that hinted at humanity's true nature"
so I think Elana is either a fragment of Manus or something that was born in the abyss and took human form too.
Guess we have differrent definitions of "Happy"
Well, I explained a little bit why I think the ending in the DLC is a happy one. Our character breaks the cycle now that he/she cannot be taken by the curse. If he finds out how to share this power with all humans he may be able to save all of them, of course that's the best scenario, it could also be possible that he cannot transfer this power to others, and he could become the only being capable of
Inherit the fire and harness the dark.